Get ready for school. ...more

August 13, 2009

The American morning paper is part of mom and apple pie, it is the sounding board of "all Americans," it cannot be allowed to financially cease to exist, just as public TV. The editorial page of every American newspaper is the most read part of any newspaper worldwide. It is news from the people from every walk of life. No nation can survive without "All" the news. ...more

April 8, 2009

Andrea Reynolds, a mother of four young children in southern Louisiana, can't remember the last time she bought a dress. She also can't remember her last vacation - unless, she quips, you count those three weeks in a hotel fleeing Hurricane Rita in 2005. ...more

October 26, 2008

In the 1940s, Black's Department Store opened downtown on Drane Street and grew to be one of the town's most popular places to shop. Everybody knew Black's. On Saturday evenings, so many customers flocked to the store you could hardly move. And you would not believe the number of people who were there each Christmas Eve to pick up their layaway items. ...more

September 21, 2008

He's been through tough times before, but Brandon resident Mark Mahon never anticipated that he and his 14-year-old son would have to live in the Chevy van he purchased to carry supplies for his home-remodeling business. ...more

September 4, 2008

Jessica Townsend's favorite subject is coloring. At Woodlawn Elementary School's orientation Thursday afternoon, the 6-year-old said houses and rainbows are her favorite pictures to color. ...more

August 16, 2008

A Wal-Mart Supercenter was evacuated for about two hours Saturday after a passerby smelled gas leaking from a natural gas meter outside the building. ...more

August 10, 2008

Rising prices, falling home values, stagnant wages and tight credit. It's a potent combination that has struck the American consumer hard. ...more

August 5, 2008

In seven years of selling school supplies, Traci Torres cannot remember a back-to-school shopping season shaping up as gloomy as this one. ...more

August 1, 2008

As women, we're supposed to savor the "seasons" of our lives, which, ironically, have more to do with what's going on in our heads than with weather or age. My teen years were one long "season" of angst. Fall started with the school year, but for me it was more "sweater season" than fall. Does this bulky knit make me look fat? And more "football season" than autumn. I'll just die if I don't have a date for homecoming. Winter was the season of holidays. Not another Christmas pageant! Even God must be bored with this. And it was the season of basketball. I'm going to the game even if I do have six hours of homework. Winter was also one, continuous frizzy-hair nightmare. I'd rather be bald! Spring signaled the school year winding down, and final exams loomed like a spectre. Somebody just shoot me, preferably before third period. Summer officially started, not with the solstice, but with the last day of school, which was also the first day of "swimsuit season." It's not bad enough that I never tan; now my white shoulders have zits. ...more

January 27, 2008